Emergency location devices, such as emergency position indicating radio beacons (“EPIRBs”) and emergency personal locators (“EPLs”), are used in search and rescue to locate people. When activated, such devices usually transmit a code or similar signal on a standard international search and rescue radio frequency for homing radio direction finding.
An inherent shortcoming of existing emergency location devices is the high transmit power needed to operate the integral transmitter. For these transmitters to be powered for reliable use, the associated battery must be capable of operation over an extended period. Since these devices must be capable of relatively high-power transmission, the batteries needed to power the devices are necessarily large; thus the overall device generally is large and therefore cumbersome. In addition, the devices require sufficient operating life to ensure the location of a user in distress.
A need therefore exists for a rugged, small, light weight, reliable, low power emergency-alerting device capable of transmitting a radio frequency signal.